In Depth:  Northern Ireland

Andrew Irwin

“It is winter in Narnia and has been for ever so long ... Always winter, but never Christmas,” the faun Mr. Tumnus responds to the despair of Lucy Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Haunting, beautiful, and powerful imagery that author C.S. Lewis used to describe life in Narnia under the White Witch.

Imagery that I loved, but will now confess, I had never really understood, until God called me to minister in the place that is now home.

James Burnett

Living in Belfast, the cultural response to a Sudanese suspect who allegedly stabbed a white person in June’s evening daylight was predictable: streets, buses and houses were ablaze in full technicolour hatred in time for the ten o'clock news, the self-justified expression of pent-up aggression against migrants.

One Pastor in North Belfast, Jack McKee, made the local news for speaking out against the violence and standing up for his parishioners: “They’re good Christian people and they’re getting put out just because they’re black... I’m doing my best to help them, it’s as simple as that". ^[1]

Olwyn Mark

The role and place of religion in the education system in Northern Ireland is currently under scrutiny in light of a case currently being considered by the UK Supreme Court – the case of JR87.

The case centres on a child who attended a primary school in Northern Ireland with a Christian ethos. When the child in question started repeating a prayer at home before eating, one that she had learnt at school, and began asking questions about God and religion, her parents voiced their concerns to the school, namely that the education that their daughter was receiving did not conform with their own religious or philosophical convictions.